Training simple changes with hot horse...

[Libera]

How does everyone else do it?

I have a very hot horse that gets easily tensed up after her canter work. It makes it very challenging to really teach her the simple changes, because after the first canter her walk gets jiggy… so I walk and walk and walk until she relaxes, and then ask for a canter transition and the same thing happens, over and over.

Should I keep at it until she learns to settle down quicker? Or should I do something different for a minute like trot work? Or is she overfaced and should I go back to canter trot canter transitions?

She can be a little insecure and her go to move is to speed up, so we are spending a lot of time on transitions and the walk trot walk is fine. She just gets sooo excited after the canter, and I am not sure if the best course of action will be to work on the canter until she tires of it, or “force” her to settle down first, which means mostly riding at the walk with an occasional canter thrown in…

[ClassyJumper]

My mare is the same. following to see what advice you get.

My favorite exercise so far to help with this is 3 canter poles set on a curve (7ft inside 11 ft outside). The center will be at 9 ft so you can walk trot or canter through them. It really helps to back off the hot ones and you can do lots of transitions on the circle. For the simple change you can cut through the middle change the lead and then head back through the poles the other way. If she starts to get strong you can approach the poles from the outside and angle towards the inside which will force her to shorten up her stride (without having to get into her face).

I also found after canter work it helps my mare if i just make her halt for a few minutes. She will literally take a deep breath and then I know we can continue without all the drama.

[Sadiegem]

Frantic often means unbalanced and scared. I’d work her with an eye to improve balance and strength; poles, transitions, etc.

Once you do pick up the transitions again do your canter work with a lot of 10m circles. When you want the canter/walk, do a spiraling in circle, ensuring she’s soft in the poll and stays balanced. Ask for the walk when she’s spiraled in and ensure you always give in the downward, pulling will make her feel trapped, escalating the nervousness around the transition.

[J-Lu]

Canter-walk-canter can be a beast of it’s own.

Might her walk get jiggy becasue she expects the transition? Go into sittlng trot and do shoulder in and leg yields even if she’s anticipating canter to say that “you think we’re cantering, but we aren’t”. DON;T punish her participation in the ride just pleasantly show her that you’re doing something else. If she jigs, she’s not ready for this because she anticipates stress. Work to get rid of that stress while keeping a forward and active walk. Do not reward a canter out of a jig, work hard to reward d a truly collected and FORWARD walk. Lay off the walk-canter transitions until you can create a truly collected and forward walk that can set you horse up for the transition and subsequent canter.

[J-Lu]

@Sadiegem

Frantic often means unbalanced and scared. I’d work her with an eye to improve balance and strength; poles, transitions, etc.

Once you do pick up the transitions again do your canter work with a lot of 10m circles. When you want the canter/walk, do a spiraling in circle, ensuring she’s soft in the poll and stays balanced. Ask for the walk when she’s spiraled in and ensure you always give in the downward, pulling will make her feel trapped, escalating the nervousness around the transition.

Do you think that a lot of 10m circles are above this horse’s current training? They’re pretty harsh on the legs on a horse that can’t carry itself.

[friedmas]

My boy was very anxious about simples and just downward transitions from the canter in general when I got him back from the trainer ( no fault of the trainer, just 2 months of being broke so he was GREEN.) My boy was starting to have an understanding of balance (which is important for this exercise), so when he got “jiggy” at his walk, I would simply do a firm rollback and immediately walk on. This quit the “jigging” because they can’t jig while their spinning, and it sat him on his butt again before the next lope off transition. The rollback can’t be a punishment, just a redirection of the energy your horse puts into the jig. You want her hind end planted, because doing a half jog in a circle does not redirect the movement at all, it just puts it in a smaller circle. As long as you have control of her shoulder independently, you should be able to roll her onto her butt.

If you roll her back and she jigs again, repeat the exercise.

Best of luck!

[endlessclimb]

@Libera

How does everyone else do it?

I have a very hot horse that gets easily tensed up after her canter work. It makes it very challenging to really teach her the simple changes, because after the first canter her walk gets jiggy… so I walk and walk and walk until she relaxes, and then ask for a canter transition and the same thing happens, over and over.

Should I keep at it until she learns to settle down quicker? Or should I do something different for a minute like trot work? Or is she overfaced and should I go back to canter trot canter transitions?

She can be a little insecure and her go to move is to speed up, so we are spending a lot of time on transitions and the walk trot walk is fine. She just gets sooo excited after the canter, and I am not sure if the best course of action will be to work on the canter until she tires of it, or “force” her to settle down first, which means mostly riding at the walk with an occasional canter thrown in…

You’re not going to force a jiggy horse to settle down.

What worked for my mare is to keep my damned legs on. It’s so hard with a horse who is so hot to do this, because they get all goosy and stupid for awhile when you start. Put your leg on. Little hug. Leave them there. She can jig, she can try to trot off, she can whatever. Use figures to keep her under control. But don’t, under any circumstances, float your leg off her. Same with the contact. “This is the contact. You can go anywhere you want, up, down, whatever, but the contact won’t change.”

Finally, make sure your asking her with some tact. You have a hot mare. If you ask in a way that she finds offensive (leg too far back, too much pressure, floating the leg and “surprising” her with the cue), she’s going to remember that offensive moment and anticipate the next one.

And finally, patience. Take a deep breath. The hot ones can, at times, be incredibly frustrating.

[Sadiegem]

@J-Lu

Do you think that a lot of 10m circles are above this horse’s current training? They’re pretty harsh on the legs on a horse that can’t carry itself.

I think that a horse starting canter/walk needs to have balance and relaxation to be successful and not panic. The horse also has to have enough adjustability in it’s stride so doing 10m circles at the corner of the ring to help set them up for a walk transition isn’t wrong.

If they can’t carry themselves, they aren’t ready for the canter/walk.

[atlatl]

Go “back” to trot canter trot transitions until they are super easy and boring. Don’t worry about walk canter walk until TCT is super solid.

Good luck!

[jonem004]

Can she trot and canter on a loop rein?

[merrygoround]

Not only work on TCT, and CWC transition, but also work at transitions within the gait. Play with flexion changes without changing your legs.

in other words play with all the component parts, til they are boring.

[netg]

For your sake, I hope your horse is like mine was! The jigginess was because she was enjoying working harder for the first time in her dressage career - it was the first hint she was going to dig deep and give me her heart every time things got difficult.
In her case, her longer back and hind legs meant it was harder for her to really hold herself into the transition. Her jiggy was actually piaffe-like and resulted in us developing half steps, as if she were revving her engine for the transition.
Now, as a smart, hot, hard working mare - she also has those tension moments. For those, distract and do something else because she’ll make herself sick if she keeps trying as hard as she builds herself up to do. Rather than frustrating, I find her an absolute joy to work with, but it took good guidance from my trainer to really understand her personality and how to steer her training to make her so happy to work.

[Dressage_Strider]

Do Canter Walk transitions more. Without the idea of going back into the canter from the walk.
Make it a part of your warm up to do trot walk transitions - If she continues to jig, this is not related to the canter, but a tell that you don’t have relaxation.
I agree this means the entire spine needs suppling, don’t let the horse be straight! I imagine that my horses’ head is a new born baby, the kind that you can’t jostle - imagine that you are ever so gently PUSHING the head from your left rein to your right. Should only take a few seconds to relax the horse

[Libera]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Some very useful stuff, going to try some new things.

Will have to get some trotpoles as well.

Her walk-trot and trot-canter transitions are fine and easy. We have been working a lot on more transitions within the gaits to increase balance, and will keep doing that. Going to try the 10m circles and using the legyiels/si/hi/hp to distract her in between

[sdlbredfan]

walk several relaxed steps before next lead…her tension may be coming from you…

[sascha]

Walking walking walking after a canter walk transition.

Teach her that a loose rein walk is the ultimate reward. Use candy to reinforce this if necessary. This means that eventually when you get a down transition, you can almost immediately get a relaxed horse by giving her the reins. Let her realize that there is nothing exciting after that down transition.

More walking practising dropping and picking up your reins.

Leg on ALWAYS.

If you have someone to teach you half steps in hand, you will develop her hind end to do the job better without anybody getting excited about anything.

Lots and lots of lateral work in trot and walk will also help, especially if it’s relatively easy for her.

And lastly and most importantly, if she is strong enough behind and in her abs and back, don’t even consider following with your seat when she gets a little bent out of shape. Your seat (whole body and mind) should tell her, hey, I’m back here doing nothing exciting whatsoever at this slightly boring pace, I think you should join me back here, it’s more fun. If she is not strong enough that you feel you can do that, then she is not ready for the simple changes.